Putting the party back in the Grand Old Party.

Who’s running the Republican National Committee?  A bunch of aging fraternity brothers and sorority sisters?

For more than a year, the Republican Party has hammered President Obama and the Democratic Congress for spending money in order to resucitate the moribund economy left by George W. Bush.  (Nevermind that, as a result of the administration’s efforts, the economy seems to be rebounding.)   

Now it has been revealed that the Republican National Committee spent $1,946 at West Hollywood’s Voyeur Club featuring topless dancers in bondage outfits.  The expenditure was listed as “meals.”  Rrrrrright!   

Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission also show that the RNC spent more than $80,000 on private jets and $13,000 for limousines in February alone, plus $9,000 for the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,600 for the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons, and $15,000 at the W Hotel in Washington.    

In addition, this Grand Old Party of the people reported that it spent $982 of donors’ money on “office supplies” from the Boyden Valley Winery last December and more than $700 worth of “office supplies” from Congressional Liquors on Capitol Hill.  And, in December, the RNC reimbursed its Deputy Finance Director, Debbie LeHardy, for $453 worth of “meals” from Henri Bendel, a Fifth Avenue New York boutique that bills itself as a “Girls’ Playground for trendsetting young women from around the world.”  

By now, you’re probably wondering how you can get a job with the RNC.  But wait!  It gets better!   

In the midst of the worst economy since the Great Depression, the RNC spent more than $43,000 to hold its 2010 winter meeting at a posh resort on Hawaii’s Waikiki Beach, not including airfare.  Of course, Republicans used the occasion to give lip-service to their message of fiscal responsibility and to chastise Democrats for being “out of touch with average Americans” – all the while spending donor money on cocktails, spas and beach cabanas.  

Amazingly, these are the people who call themselves “conservatives.”   And they’re trying to convince voters to put them back in charge of the federal budget.  Let’s see.  How did that work out last time?  Oh, that’s right.  They’re the ones who brought us unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy, two unfunded wars, deregulation of commodities leading to inflated oil prices, and deregulation of financial institutions leading to the economic collapse of 2008. 

Yeah, let’s do that again.